Nearly 2,000 years ago a gladiator helmet followed the Roman invasion of Britain to be worn in combat in the arena. At some point it was lost, perhaps even looted from Colchester by the forces of Boudica, and was found again when a Suffolk farmer’s plough struck it in 1965. “We believe it is the … Continued
Hands-on With the Only Gladiator Helmet Ever Found in Britain Read More »
Archaeologists say ‘catastrophic military event’ took place at site where 129 bodies have been found so farAs construction crews churned up dirt to renovate a football pitch in Vienna last October, they happened upon an unprecedented find: a heap of intertwined skeletal remains in a mass grave dating to the first-century Roman empire, most likely the bodies of warriors killed in a battle involving Germanic tribes.This week, after archaeological analysis, experts at the Vienna Museum gave a first public presentation of the grave – linked to “a catastrophic event in a military context” and evidence of the first known fighting in that region. Continue reading…
Roman-era battlefield mass grave discovered under Vienna football pitch Read More »
Digital technology reveals ‘incredibly modern’ royal who lived 3,500 years ago in kingdom associated with Helen of TroyShe lived around 3,500 years ago – but facial reconstruction technology has brought a woman from late bronze age Mycenae back to life.The woman was in her mid-30s when she was buried in a royal cemetery between the 16th and 17th centuries BC. The site was uncovered in the 1950s on the Greek mainland at Mycenae, the legendary seat of Homer’s King Agamemnon. Continue reading…
A rare 2,000-year-old Roman gold coin is now on display at the Trimontium Museum in Melrose. The aureus, dating from 114-117 CE, was unearthed at Newstead in the Scottish Borders and is now on loan from National Museums Scotland. The exhibition “Trajan’s Aureus” opens on 3 April and runs until the end of the year. […]
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With sandals that look fresher than last year’s Birkenstocks, gossipy messages recovered from writing tablets and 73,000 shards of pottery, London Museum’s new collection is like falling head-first into the first centuryArchaeologists don’t always get lucky when a site is redeveloped in the middle of London. People have been building in the city for millennia and, in more recent times, bombing it. But if the building before went too deep, or there has been too much exposure to the air by bomb damage in the past, there won’t be much to find. Things were especially bad before 1991, when there was no planning protection for anything but scheduled ancient monuments. “We used to have to beg to get on site,” says Sophie Jackson, archaeologist at Museum of London Archaeology (Mola).It’s not that developers are insensitive, says Jackson: “When we did the excavation at Barts hospital, [it] was functioning above us – we were right under the MRI machines. Developers recognise the social value.” It’s just that the stars don’t often align. Continue reading…
The detailed relics were found in a necropolis and experts believe the woman depicted could have been an important priestessTwo almost lifesize sculptures of a man and woman, who was believed to have been a priestess, have been found during the excavations of a huge tomb in the ancient Roman city of Pompeii.The detailed funerary relics adorned the tomb containing several burial niches built into a wide wall in the necropolis of Porta Sarno, one of the main entrance gates into the ancient city. Pompeii was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD79. Continue reading…
Two near lifesize sculptures found during excavations of Pompeii tomb Read More »
Source: Cleveland Museum of ArtThe Cleveland Museum of Art has agreed that the bronze figure acquired in 1986 will be returned to Türkiye. Scientific tests on soil samples appear to confirm that the figure was in fact found at Bubon and thus formed part of a series of imperial statues. For many years the headless statue was presented as a representation of the emperor Marcus Aurelius.The Manhattan DA presented this account of the looting:In the 1960s, individuals from a village near Bubon began plundering a Sebasteion, an ancient shrine with monumental bronze statues of Roman emperors and selling those looted antiquities to smugglers based in the coastal Turkish city of Izmir. Working with Switzerland-based trafficker George Zakos and New York-and-Paris-based trafficker Robert Hecht, they unlawfully removed the looted antiquities from Türkiye, transporting them to Switzerland or the United Kingdom, and then onward to the United States or other European destinations. Once the statues were in the United States, New York-based dealers such as Jerome Eisenberg’s Royal-Athena Galleries and the Merrin Gallery funneled the stolen Bubon bronzes into museum exhibitions and academic publications thereby laundering the pieces with newly crafted provenance. As the Bubon pieces graced the pages of exhibition catalogues and academic publications, the reputational value of the institutions who displayed the Bubon pieces increased and the financial value of the statues grew.George Zakos was linked to the Lydian silver treasure that was returned to Türkiye by New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Zakos also handled the Sion Treasure that was acquired by Dumbarton Oaks, and three terracotta antefixes in the Metropolitan Museum of Art that appear to come from the Panionion on Mykale in Türkiye (1992.36.1; 1992.36.2; 1992.36.3).The research of Dr Elizabeth Marlowe on the Bubon material is acknowledged by the Manhattan DA. Press release:Cleveland Museum of Art: Cleveland Museum of Art and District Attorney of New York Reach Agreement on Draped Male Figure (the Philosopher) (February 14, 2025).Manhattan DA: Manhattan DA’s Office Announces Repatriation of Marcus Aurelius Statue to the People of Türkiye (February 14, 2025)
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Cleveland Museum of Art returns statue linked to Bubon Read More »
In 1972 the Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired a bronze griffin head that was “said to have been found in Olympia” (Bothmer), specifically in the river bed of the Kladeos near to the Gymnasium (inv. 1971.118.54). The find was recorded in Deltion for 1915. In 2019 Elizabeth Marlowe reminded us of the history of the head:A bronze griffin head displayed at the museum just beyond the ticket counter was found in a riverbed at Olympia in Greece in 1914, only to disappear from the archaeological museum there years later. It resurfaced on the art market in 1948, when it was bought by a Met trustee who eventually donated it to the museum. The museum responded:The Bronze Head of a Griffin was a gift in 1972 from Walter Baker and has never been the subject of a dispute. Yet now the Met has decided to return the griffin head to Greece and present the full collecting history:Chance find by Th. Karachalios, supervisor of the Olympia Museum, in the bed of the Kladeos river at Olympia, near the gymnasium, in December 1914; in 1937/38 published as no longer to be found at the Olympia Museum; [by 1936, with Theodore Zoumpoulakis, Athens and Paris]; [Summer 1936, purchased by Joseph Brummer from Th. Zoumpoulakis]; [1936-1948, with Joseph Brummer, New York (P13197)]; January 15, 1948, purchased by Walter C. Baker from J. Brummer; 1948-1971, collection of Walter C. Baker, New York; acquired in 1972, bequest of Walter C. Baker.Zoumpoulakis is known to have handled several objects that ended up in major European and North American collections, some perhaps of modern creation. The Met adds to the decision to return the head:The Met and the Greek Ministry agreed to the return of the Griffin after careful review of records and letters determining that it could not have legitimately left the Archaeological Museum of Olympia.What other suspicious pieces lurk among the collection housed in the Met? This return coincides with the “Cultural Property Now” event held at the Met. It is linked to the controversial display of the “Cycladicising” collection formed by Leonard N. Stern that contains material linked to the notorious Keros Haul, as well as items identified from the Becchina archive.
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Metropolitan Museum of Art Returns Griffin to Greece Read More »
A recent study by Dr. Ellen Green, published in the International Journal of Paleopathology, has revealed new insights into one of the most significant discoveries of ritual animal deposits in Roman Britain. The excavation at the former Animal Husbandry Center of Nescot College in Ewell, Surrey, produced evidence of an ancient Roman quarry pit that […]
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A hoard discovered in the Netherlands presents an extraordinary first for continental Europe. The contents of this cache combine coins minted by Rome and a powerful ruler in Britain: Cunobelin. This eye-catching mixture is just one of the clues that the hoard was amassed by a person or people with first-hand experience of Britain, most likely participants in the Roman invasion. Do these coins of Cunobelin, then, represent the spoils of war? In our cover feature, we explore what this hoard reveals about a major historical moment. Relics of conflict are also apparent deep underground in France. There, former quarries
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